HARBOUR BOARD CRANES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 3

HARBOUR BOARD CRANES.

BOYCOTTED BY WATERSIDE WORKERS. VALUABLE plant now idle. Members of the Dunedin Waterside Workers’ Union recently decided not to handle cargo if landed from ships by the new electric cranes which have been erected on the Victoria wharf by the Otago Harbour Board. The union acted under instructions from headquarters at Wellington. It is stated that the union has taken up this attitude under section 55 of the Waterside Workers’ Award. This clause reads as follows: '• If and so long as the Otago Harbour Board does not directly employ labour in connection with the handling of ' cargo, it is exempted from this portion of the award, subject to the special provision which shall apply to work in connection with repairing and overhauling work, and for coaling work on the board’s dredges, tugs, and hulks.

This award was made last year, and the Otago Harbour Board was not mentioned it# the clause as a party. The Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton Harbour Boards were attached to the previous awards. That part of the clause which states that the board does not directly employ labour in connection with the handling of cargo is construed by the Harbour Board officials in conjunction with other clauses in the award to mean the employment of labour for receiving and delivery. • The Otago Board does not carry out its own receiving and delivery. The contract for this Work is held by Messrs John Mill and Co.

Crane drivers at Lyttelton, Wellington, and Auckland are employed, by the respective harbour boards. The refusal \of the Dunedin waterside workers to handle cargo lifted by the cranes was unexpected, as when the union recently made a request to the Harbour Board that members of the union be employed ns crane drivers no intimation was made that direct action would be made if the request were refused. In its letter to the board in July the union stated that there were men in the union ranks who were capable of performing., the work of driving tbe cranes. It was pointed out that these men had had experience, in crane driving at other ports. At the meeting of the Harbour Board in, July, the engineer (Mr J. M‘G. Wilkie) said that the Harbours Act that all necessary labour should be provided by the board to work tbe cranes. The engineer’s interpretation of -that clause of tbe Act was-that the crane drivers should .be servants of the board. That was also his opinion, and he also thought that all crane drivers should be periodically medically examined.

The HarboUr Board was' practically unanimous in its opinion that its plant should be worked only by its employees. Officials of the board expressed thd opinion that it was impossible to reconcile the reading of the award by the Waterside Workers’ Union with the only interpretation of the demands set opt in the Harbours Act,

The action taken by the, union will mean that plant which cost over £IO,OOO, installed by the Harbour Board to expedite the handling of cargo at the Dunedin wharves, will lie idle until the 'dispute has been settled. The dispute, however, will not affect the work of the {i6rt, as cargo will be discharged and oaded with the ship’s own gear. The first vessel affected by the dispute was the Commonwealth and Dominion Dine steamer Port Bowen, which arrived at Dunedin on Sunday afternoon from Liverpool, via northern,ports. She was berthed at the Victoria wharf, and labour was engaged to work her cargo yesterday morning with her own gear, but continuous rain caused unloading operations to he postponed, The secretary of the Waterside Workers’' Union advised the Harbour. Board on Saturday that members of the unibn did not intend to work the cargo if discharged from the Port Bowen by the cranes.' The cost of the cranes was £7440, the builders being Sir William Arroll and Co,, of Parkhead, Glasgow, Before the cranes were erected the Victoria wharf was strengthened to carry the structures. The coat of this ,'work to the Harbour Board was about £3600. For some years a three-ton crane had been in use on the Victoria wharf. But it was found to be unsuitable fbr working the modern class of cargo ships which bring oversea cargo to Dunedin.

When the-jibs are fully raised the cranes, at medium range, are 98 feet in height, and each weighs about 60 tons. The hoisting machinery is of two gears, driven;by a4s b.h.p. motor, capable of lifting three tons 150 feet per minute, and a ton and a-half. at 300 feet per minute, Carrying a load of |hree tons, the cranes, driven by 10 b.h.p. motors, travel OQ feet per minute. The jib has a radius of 60 feet. The cranes were tested last week,' and each handled a, fotir-and-a-half-ton load with ease.. Ships having, very high sides can he easily worked by the craneg. ,